(Header photo from Rochester Library Photo Contest 2015)
In November of 2017, the friends of the Rochester Library contacted me about doing a presentation for the Library on Maple Sugaring. Shortly afterward, Nick Kosko, VP of the New Hampshire Maple Producers contacted them offering to do a presentation. The friends asked us to do it together. Nick and his wife Cindy are the proprietors of Meadow View Sugarhouse in Union, a relatively local farm that I have visited several times. Nick sent me an outline of how he thought the presentation should go and I created the PowerPoint slideshow. We worked the presentation together and I had a fun time. This was the beginning of my Maple Season and it’s been rolling along since.
The Southern Maine Maple Sugarmakers Association is an organization founded to address the needs and interests of maple farmers. They are a wonderful resource for beginners and experienced sugarers alike and reach out with education such as their Sap House at the Cumberland Fair. They regularly hold a pre-season workshop for maple newbies. I’ve attended this workshop for two years now – it’s a fun place to hang out and refresh myself on Maple Basics. This year it was held at The Little Meetinghouse in Windham, ME. One of the members told me that one goal of this meeting is to lessen the amount of poor quality syrup reaching the public. They stress the importance of cleanliness and using food grade containers in the whole sugarmaking process. I’d love to join this group but they limit their membership to Maine residents.
Weather has not been my friend when planning Maple Excursions this year but it did cooperate on Sunday, February 18 when I headed out to Moose Mountain to view the Meadow View Sugarbush. On Saturday the 17th the ground was clear but Saturday night brought about 18″ of fresh powder to the mountain. Cindy and Nick
were already up on the mountain but I could head in the right direction by following their snowshoe tracks. The Spring Harvest Sugarbush in Barrington where I have documented Josh Bouchard tapping is an old New England farm and fairly level. The Meadow View sugarbush covered the side of 
the mountain and had slopes of 40 – 60%. I got my work out in the woods in snowshoes but the views were spectacular. This mountainside had been sugared many years before by previous owners who appeared to have just left it with taps still in the trees. The Koskos are looking to be much better stewards.
The first Maple Open House of the year that I saw posted (on Facebook) was Maple Moon Farm in Lebanon, Maine. Frank had been at the SMMSA workshop in January. Maple Moon is also an old farm and most of their Sugarbush is on practically level ground. Some of these trees are on tubing and some are on buckets. I’ve never had the pleasure of watching farmers collect – I enjoyed getting photos of women working in the woods. Frank and Jen produce many of the usual maple products as well as other products and produce from their farm. 
They are regulars at several local farmers’ markets and I am particularly fond of Frank’s wood turnings. I love Maple but I also love photography and Maple Moon provides a particularly picturesque setting.
On March 4th I went on what was originally billed as a Snowshoe and Sugaring hike of the Leary Farm & Fore
st but there was not much, if any snow on that day. We were given a short tour of the sugarhouse at Forty to One Farm in Farmington, NH by the owners, Bob & Debbie Leary, and received an explanation of tapping by forester Wendy Scribner. Moose Mountain Regional Greenways is almost finished with the process of putting 60 plus acres of this field and woodland into conservation, a memorial to the three generations of Learys who have farmed, sugared and forested this land on the Farmington Ridge.
March 11 will begin New Hampshire Maple Month and a whole new set of adventures!
HodgePodge Maple 